Christmas at the Kurosakis
by Glon Morski
Summary: A Christmas IchiRuki special for you. A summary would ruin it. Just read and see what it is about XD Can be a one or two-shot, depending on you guys wishes. I see it as one-shot for now. Not your averange Christmas story though.


**This is a Christmas special from me. I'll warn you already, the atmosphere in this mostly isn't really Christmas like, but there's some hint to a Christmas wonder at the very end. It is meant to show the specialty that Christmas can be. I hope you'll like it.**

**I also recommend you listen to **_**You Are My Love**_** by ****Yui Makino****. It really gives great atmosphere for the fic.**

**Anyway, enjoy :3**

**BLEACH IS NOT MINE AND I'M HAPPY ABOUT IT, AS I WOULD COMPLETELY RUIN ITS AWESOMENESS.**

* * *

_Christmas at the Kurosakis_

To tell that the house had more than enough decoration was an understatement. There wasn't a single centimeter of the walls left alone, absolutely none. The whole building, on the outside AND inside was like a gigantic Christmas tree. Well, the whole house, safe for one room. _His_ room.

Rukia sighed as she closed the door to Ichigo's room behind her, closing herself off the overly happy atmosphere. She saw right through it, she could tell it was forced. But she didn't blame the Kurosaki family for it. Once she left his room, she would put up a smile as well and at least act like she was in Christmas spirits. In reality, she was far from it though, just like the rest of the family.

She massaged her temples to calm her nerves. The decoration deprived room mirrored perfectly her soul. It was sad, dull and sort of empty. There was just something missing. A certain, tall, orange haired Deputy Shinigami with his permanent scowl.

The raven haired girl ignored the tears that streamed down her cheeks as she opened his old closet to find something to wear for the evening. She gave up after a while and let herself fall on his old bed. She couldn't help but think back to one year ago. The day when everything ended. It was the end of the Winter War, the end of Aizen and the other traitors… and the last time she ever saw him.

More tears fell down her face as she recalled that day, exactly as it happened. She tried many times, but the haunting memory never left her and was still as detailed as if it had happened yesterday.

_[Flashback]_

_She stepped through the Garganta after Captain Kurotsuchi healed her. Ishida, Chad, Renji and Orihime were right behind her._

_Rukia's violet orbs widened at the sight. It looked almost as if everything was over already. Somewhere in the rubble she saw Tousens beaten body, as well as something looking akin to Gin Ichimarus head. There were no Arrancars in sight anywhere, nor did she feel any reiatsu that could belong to one._

_Captain Unohana was tending to many of the wounded with the help of Isane and the rest of squad fours forces. She also recognized the healer Vaizard who healed Ichigo once. The man was probably occupied with his own friends, but she saw them nowhere. Maybe they were lying and recuperating, but she couldn't be too sure._

_Inoue quickly left the entry to the Garganta and rushed off to help with her healing ability. Sode no Shirayuki's wielder was about to do the same, since she was pretty good at healing kidō and the fight seemed to be over, but something stopped her. It was an explosion of reiatsu that shook the ground. Rukia almost fell to her knees and struggled to breathe._

_The raven haired Shinigami forced herself to herself to look up, in the general direction where the reiatsu was coming from. There was the last of the traitors, their leader. He was in a fighting pose, standing in front of a cloud of smoke and clearly waiting for something. She saw that he had a few scratches all over his body, but nothing life threatening. And he was still smirking. _

_When the wind cleared the smoke, she saw who it was that Aizen was fighting. She recognized the orange hair and the thin, black sword instantly. But her eyes widened in horror as she got a plain view of the person._

"_ICHIGO!" she yelled at the top of her lungs when she saw him fall forward, threatening to fall to the ground. He didn't though. He caught himself in the last moment and stoop upright again, regaining his stance. She couldn't miss the shaking of his legs and of the sword in his hands though. It was no wonder though, seeing the multiple, deep gashes on his sides and torso, from which he was bleeding forcefully. If he kept fighting, he would bleed to death in a matter of seconds._

_Mustling up all her strength, Rukia stood up, as did Uryuu, Chad and Renji, all three staring in horror at the sight of their orange haired friend._

"_We gotta help him!" she struggeled to say as she finally stood. Ishida corrected his glasses._

"_The three of us will try to distract Aizen, you go heal Kurosaki, Kuchiki-san" he said, and she nodded, accepting the plan. 'Just be careful' she wanted to add, but something distracted her._

"_GETSUGA TENSHŌ!" she heard the familiar voice yell and looked up again, only to see Ichigo firing his attack at Aizen. The ex-captain dodged it effortlessly and vanished. Rukia gasped and tried to yell some sense into her loved one, even though she never got to admit her feelings to him._

"_IDIOT! YOU CAN'T FIGHT LIKE THAT! GET OUT OF THERE!" she yelled, suppressing the tears that were threatening to fall from her eyes. Fighting in his condition was suicide and nothing else, but he either didn't hear her, or acted as though he didn't._

_The violet eyed girl gasped as Aizen reappeared behind Ichigo and tried to cut him down. The blow was easily blocked though. Still, Rukia gritted her teeth as she saw Zangetsu falter against Aizens sword._

_Forgetting all about Ishida's suggestion, she jumped forward with her sword drawn._

"_Mae, Sode no Shirayuki!" she intoned as she neared the fight. She would not allow Ichigo to be killed. NEVER. "Tsugi no mai! HAKUREN!" she yelled at the top of her lungs after she stabbed the air five times as she usually did the ground. The wave of snow rushed towards Aizen, but he quickly dodged it. She used this opportunity to shunpō in front of Ichigo, but stood her back to him, ready to parry a blow. Aizen would not get any chance of getting near Ichigo now. She would not allow that. The orange haired boy will not be killed. Not as long as she lived._

_[Interruption of the Flashback]_

There was a knock on the door and a chestnut haired girl peeked inside.

"Rukia-chan… Dinner is ready" she said quietly and Rukia forced a smile as she looked up.

"I'll be down in a minute, Yuzu" she said and stood up. Ichigo's sister nodded and left the room. Rukia moved back to the closet and chose a dark violet dress to wear for the Christmas dinner. It was a dress Ichigo got for her, saying that he just thought it would look good on her. She wore it only on special occasions, like some sacred piece of clothing. Not that it wasn't sacred for her. It was the last thing he had ever given her.

Sighing, she quickly changed and went down to the rest of the family, her mind still diving in the memories of that day. Now that she thought about it, what she did back then was the most stupid thing she could have done, for the simple reason that she was fooled. Now she knew that what she saw was an illusion created by Aizen's Zanpakutou. In reality, she shielded Aizen back then and tried to kill Ichigo. She could only imagine what his real reaction was when she stopped him from killing his foe.

Rukia clenched her fists as the memory hit her full force, but hid it all behind a smile just like the rest of the Kurosakis. The dinner was exceptionally silent, just like last year. Maybe it was because it was so close to the anniversary of the tragedy. Not that Rukia ever told Ichigo's family the truth. For them, the Deputy Shinigami simply went missing. The raven haired girl didn't want to steal every last bit of hope from their hearts, although she suspected they lost that last ray long ago. A year already passed by after all.

Suppressing a sigh, Rukia looked over to the empty seat beside her. It was the tradition to put one more table-ware for the so called unexpected guest **(A/N: At least in Poland we have that tradition, I don't know about the other countries)**, but she had a feeling that the family hoped for a concrete 'unexpected guest'.

She blinked away the tears that build up in her eyes again as the rest of the memory assaulted her.

_[Return to the Flashback]_

"_You idiot! Do you want to get yourself killed?" she yelled at Ichigo without turning around. He didn't answer and for some reason, Rukia felt chills running up and down her spine. She slowly turned around, only to see a black blade moving towards her quickly. Her eyes widened in disbelief and she brought up her Zanpakutou to block the attack, but she knew she would be too late. She closed her eyes, hoping it would at least be painless. But the strike never came. Instead, she felt warm blood on her face. She slowly opened her eyes… and gasped._

_Aizen was in front of her, the black blade impaling his chest. The man coughed up blood as Ichigo removed his blade from his body. The ex-captain shook but did not fall._

"_What the… Hell?" Rukia asked aloud in disbelief. Why would Ichigo attack her? And why would Aizen defend her?_

_Her question was quickly answered as Ichigo smirked and both his and Aizen's form broke like glass, revealing 'Aizen' as Ichigo_. _Her eyes widened in horror. So it was only an illusion._

"_I-Ichigo" she said with disbelief. How could she have fallen for it? She knew what Aizen's sword's abilities were. Why didn't she think even for a second this could have been an illusion?_

"_Ru-Rukia… Are you alright?" he asked her as he turned his head a little so he could see her. She saw pain in his eyes, as well as worry. 'Don't worry about me' they seemed to say as well. She didn't answer as tears willed up in her eyes. She wanted to protect Ichigo and ended up being the one to cause his death. Maniacal laughter interrupted her thoughts and she looked past Ichigo, right into Aizen's cold eyes. For someone as beaten up as he was, he sure had a confident smirk. The illusion apparently didn't reach the wounds._

_She saw Ichgio shut his eyes tightly and she reached out to catch him in case he fell, but nothing of the sort happened. The orange haired Shinigami slashed the air in front of him rapidly and an explosion followed. It took her a while to realize that he shot a Gestuga point blank at his enely. There was no way Aizen dodged that one…_

_The smoke of the explosion reached the two of them as well and his everything from view. She was unable to tell whether Ichigo was still in front of her or not. A few explosions still reached her ears, one of them being once more an explosion of reiatsu, causing her to fall to her knees yet again and stopping her from moving an inch. She thought she heard Ichigo's voice in the distance, but wasn't able to make out what he was saying. Suddenly, the heavy reiatsu vanished as suddenly as it appeared and when the smoke cleared, not one of the fighters was anywhere in sight. Aizen vanished into thin air, but he took Ichigo with him._

_[End of Flashback]_

They didn't get any sign of him ever since. They even send Shinigami to Hueco Mundo to verify the hypothesis he was dead. They came back with the information confirmed; he was no longer among the living. But the group also said that there was no trace of Ichigo anywhere either. As the year passed, Rukia started to think just like the others that he must have died. Seeing that he was stabbed through his chest, she shouldn't really be surprised. But she still kept hoping. It was an empty hope, but she couldn't stop herself.

As the memory replayed itself in her mind twice more, she finally let the tears fall down her cheeks. The raven haired girl came once more to the conclusion that it was all her fault. She was right too. If she thought even for a second that it might be an illusion, maybe Ichigo would still be alive…

The door bell interrupted her thoughts and everyone at the table jerked their heads up. It seemed like the additional table-ware would be useful for once.

"I'll go get it" Karin said quietly as she stood up from the table and went to the door. Silence followed the sound of the door and Rukia felt a change in the atmosphere. Karin showed up again soon agnough, a smile plastered on her face. And it wasn't a fake one. Rukia raised her eyebrow.

"You're not gonna believe who it is that rang the door bell" the black haired girl said with a grin. Rukia was about to ask when the person entered after Karin. Isshin and Yuzu both stood up at the sight and rubbed their eyes. Rukia just said there with wide eyes as the person behind Karin raised up a hand in a casual greeting.

"Yo" an all too familiar voice said and the person laughed as Yuzu threw herself at him, accompanied by Isshin. Rukia just sat there staring as a single word escaped her lips.

"Ichigo…"

* * *

**See, told you there would be a 'Christmas wonder' at the end XD As you can see, Ichigo's not dead :]**

**Anyway, this thing is a one-shot, except if you would like a second part for whatever reason. You'd have to tell me what to cover in it though. Tell me in a review, why don't you? Reviews are always appreciated :3**


End file.
